Tuesday Tasting: Cybersex, Computing and Recycling
Each week, Ariel Waldman serves a tasting of the latest in sex and tech.
Pirated Cybersex Goes To Court
Between furries and frequent downtime, Second Life is known to come with its share of deceit. The virtual vacation from reality can get a little lonely without proper "parts". As such, Eros LLC creator, Kevin Alderman, helps your avatar hit that with a few fleshy accessories around the hip. While most 3D models are making love, apparently an avatar by the name of Volkov Catteneo hacked the copy protection to make bank selling unauthorized balls. Second Life fortunately was no stranger to stalking, as Alderman's lawyers tracked down the avatar IRL and laid down a lawsuit.
SIGGRAPH Showcases Groping Gadgets
With names like "Box of Balls" to "Gravity Grabber", this year's SIGGRAPH gizmos explored computational touch technology. NewScientist explains more on the sensual scoop: "Haptic technology, which exploits the sense of touch, could have a range of applications, researchers say, from telesurgery and robotic remote control to more immersive computer games". Other devices explored ways to stimulate touch, as well as calculate it by using feathers embedded in a silicone gel. Touch technology may still have a long way to go, but we always encourage experimentation.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Rabbits
Recycling Rabbits may seem a little Looney Tunes to some, but a company out of the UK urges you to think otherwise. With Europe's recent law making it illegal to throw away any electronic devices, many might be sticking with their sex toys longer to avoid timidly turning them in for proper disposal. LoveHoney fortunately feels your fear and is offering up a "rabbit amnesty" for turning your sex gadgets green. Token environment blog, Treehugger, makes sure to point out that it's not only about cleaning the environment, but also the pleasure part itself before handing it over.
Green Promoters Green Behind the Ears (and We're Not Talkin' Ears of Corn)
I'm all for greening up the mess that fossil fuels have caused, but isn't there a way of promoting the alt-fuel lifestyle change that doesn't involve stereotyping and making fun of our southern brothers and sisters?
Hat Tip: AutoBlogGreen
No Impact Man Doesn't Use Toilet Paper
I don't know whether to consider these two people heroes, or crazies. Colin Beavan and Michelle Conlin two Manhattanites have given up modern conveniences in order to achieve total carbon neutrality, or "No Impact" as Beavan prefers.
Colin Beavan, 43, a writer of historical nonfiction, and Michelle Conlin, 39, a senior writer at Business Week, are four months into a yearlong lifestyle experiment they call No Impact. Its rules are evolving, as Mr. Beavan will tell you, but to date include eating only food (organically) grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan; (mostly) no shopping for anything except said food; producing no trash (except compost, see above); using no paper; and, most intriguingly, using no carbon-fueled transportation.
The dishwasher is off, along with the microwave, the coffee machine and the food processor. Planes, trains, automobiles and that elevator are out, but the family is still doing laundry in the washing machines in the basement of the building.
Essentially the family, with two year old daughter Isabella, are living a 19th century lifestyle. But learning the motivation and inspiration behind the move cancels out calling the duo crazy. Sadly, it also voids "hero" potential.
Mr. Beavan, who has written one book about the origins of forensic detective work and another about D-Day, said he was ready for a new subject, hoping to tread more lightly on the planet and maybe be an inspiration to others in the process.
Also, he needed a new book project and the No Impact year was the only one of four possibilities his agent thought would sell. This being 2007, Mr. Beavan is showcasing No Impact in a blog (noimpactman.com) laced with links and testimonials from New Environmentalist authorities like treehugger.com. His agent did indeed secure him a book deal, with Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and he and his family are being tailed by Laura Gabbert, a documentary filmmaker and Ms. Conlin's best friend.
Still, making a living doing this makes it no easy task, and not a job I would want. I wonder about the documentary which might be enlightening in terms of what kinds of compromises are available that I am willing to make. The worst part must be that like most Manhattanites, these two live in an apartment, but they are so committed to the experiment that they have begun composting... indoors with a home composter. That, or not being able to use toilet paper.
The couple rinse, and then air dry.
Ew.
No Impact Man will appear on Comedy Central's Colbert Report tomorrow, Monday, April 9th, for all to judge.
Coca-Cola Cashes in on Green Trend
Coca-Cola's new concept store in Toronto comes in a neatly wrapped package: bamboo, overstuffed chairs, recycled cups and fair trade coffee. However the Yorkville store, Far Coast, won't admit its ties with Cokea company renowned for gross human rights violations and murder, covered up by corporate branding and a sugar-coated smile.
As reported in NOW Magazine, the cafe is "a trendy teal and orange" with all the upscale features you'd expect to find in a modern coffee shop. Far Coast offers a fair trade option and features reclaimed wood in its design.
The cafe, however, is "basically appeasing people with the bare minimum," says Jennifer Wright of Green Shift, pioneers of the biodegradable coffee cup.
Silvio Annosantini, Coca-Cola's director of premium brewed beverages (how's that for a job title?), is quick to point out that a fair trade coffee is always available at Far Coast, perhaps taking aim at Starbucks, which only brews some once a month.
But consumers must wonder, where does the company get the rest of their beans? The company playing nice with coffee farmers is a little hard to swallow if you add up all the charges made by global human rights groups like New York-based Killer Coke.
NOW is confident that Toronto's green-conscious community will ask the right question: who's dying for your coffee?